Martha Stewart’s Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

For my dad’s birthday I baked 4 different kinds of cookies. Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts were one of them. I got this recipe from Martha Stewart’s Cookies. Since my dad’s birthday party was on February 14th, I wanted to make a heart-shaped cookie and thought this would do the trick.

The twist with the cranberry shortbread recipe is that you press the dough into a pan and cut the cookies out after baking. I found this to be wasteful. There a lot of cooked dough that is not used. Sure, we ate random pieces at home, but I thought it’d be better if you could get more heart-shaped cookies out of the dough. Also, I think the dough should be pressed into a larger pan to make a thinner cookie. These cookies were so thick, it made a kind of big cookie. And they were a bit dry. Not bad, I can see how some people would love these cookies, but they were not my favorite.
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Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts
This simple shortbread recipe is patted firmly into a baking pan; shapes are cut with a cookie cutter. For variation, other dried fruits or mini chocolate chips can be substituted for the cranberries. Makes about 1 1/2 dozen 1 3/4-inch hearts.

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped dried cranberries or cherries

Heat oven to 325 degrees with a rack in center. Put butter, confectioners’ sugar, vanilla, flour, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Stir together with a wooden spoon until combined but not too creamy. Stir in dried cranberries.

Pat dough evenly into an 8-inch-square baking pan. Bake until firm and pale golden, about 30 minutes. Let cool on cooling rack, about 20 minutes.

Run knife around edges, remove shortbread, and transfer, right side up, to work surface. Cut out hearts with a 2-inch heart-shape cookie cutter. Trim any stray bits of cranberry from edges with a paring knife.

Cookies will keep for 5 days at room temperature in an airtight container.

2 thoughts on “Martha Stewart’s Dried Cranberry Shortbread Hearts

  1. That is the one that I enjoyed the best.
    It was a good coffee dunker.
    Reminded me of pecan fingers
    Great job om all of the cookies
    Dad

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